Jaw-Dropping Facts About Babies That You Probably Didn’t Know

In the United States, it is estimated that around 4 million babies are born every year. That’s a lot of diapers, folks.

Every parent thinks that their child is special, and they’re absolutely right, but did you know that the little tykes posses pretty unique talents and attributes even before they’re born? They have amazing skills that benefit them and their parents…here are some amazing facts about babies.

1. If you lay a newborn baby on a mother’s stomach, it will crawl up and attach to the mother’s nipple because it has a similar smell to amniotic fluid. This is also why babies suck on their fingers — they usually have amniotic residue on them right after they’re born.

3. A mother feels compelled to kiss her baby because she will ingest any bacteria/viruses on the baby’s skin, thus creating antibodies that go into her breast milk. They will protect the baby from possible infection.

4. While babies are in the womb, they grow mustaches and body hair. They shed those hairs right before birth and eat them, then the hairs become part of the baby’s first poop!

5. Babies cry in different accents. They learn the accent that their mother speaks and try to imitate it when they cry. This makes it possible to tell a German baby from a French one or even an American baby.

6. Newborns can only see in black and white for the first few months of their lives. This is because their vision isn’t fully developed yet. They also can only see about a foot in front of their face. The first color they are able to distinguish besides black, white, or gray is red.

7. The place with the most developed nerve endings on a baby’s body is the mouth, which is why they put so many things in there. It’s not until they are seven months old that babies explore things with their hands.

8. Part of the reason that babies sleep a lot is because they use up to 50% of the body’s glucose supply in their brains. Comparatively, adults use only around 20% of the body’s supply.

9. Up until about 1985, doctors conducted surgeries on babies without the use of numbing medicines because they believed they didn’t feel pain. This was because infants don’t have a conscious memory and the pain wouldn’t cause any long-term harm. They also found it impossible to determine the level of a baby’s pain since they can’t speak or react like a grown person.

10. While a baby is still in the womb, if the mother suffers any kind of organ damage, the baby will send stem cells to that organ in order to help repair it.

11. Most babies have an innate swimming and diving reflex until they are about six months old. This helps them survive if they are placed in water. They will instinctively hold their breath, their heart rate will decrease, and blood circulation to their fingers and toes is reduced.